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    Basalt is a common volcanic rock that comprises over 90% of ocean crust. It erupts from shield volcanoes, cinder cones, and fissure eruptions. Basalt has a dark gray to black color and varies in texture from glassy to porous. Common variations include porphyritic basalt with large crystal phenocrysts, scoria which is highly vesicular, and pillow basalt formed under water or ice.

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    GEOL1501 USYD rock quiz revison

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    igneous_basalt

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    Basalt is a common volcanic rock that comprises over 90% of ocean crust. It erupts from shield volcanoes, cinder cones, and fissure eruptions. Basalt has a dark gray to black color and varies in texture from glassy to porous. Common variations include porphyritic basalt with large crystal phenocrysts, scoria which is highly vesicular, and pillow basalt formed under water or ice.

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    3 views4 pages

    Igneous Basalt

    Uploaded by

    yuehuang0902
    Basalt is a common volcanic rock that comprises over 90% of ocean crust. It erupts from shield volcanoes, cinder cones, and fissure eruptions. Basalt has a dark gray to black color and varies in texture from glassy to porous. Common variations include porphyritic basalt with large crystal phenocrysts, scoria which is highly vesicular, and pillow basalt formed under water or ice.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 4

    BASALT

     Comprises ocean crust and more than 90% of all volcanic

    rocks

     Erupts frequently so we can watch and learn!

     Fundamentally a mafic volcanic rock (dark gray to black)

     Erupts from “nice” volcanoes: fissure, shield, cinder cone

     Textures vary: aphanitic, porphyritic, vesicular, even glassy

    o Use textural term as adjective: “porphyritic basalt” or

    “vesicular basalt”

     Fresh basaltic lava often is iridescent, eventually weathers to

    black/brown/red
    Variations:

     Porphyritic Basalt: phenocrysts (large crystals) usually


    plagioclase or olivine

     Scoria: highly vesicular basalt (not pumice)

     Cinder: BB to golf ball sized (0.08 to 2.5 in or 2-64 mm)


    pieces of vesicular basalt, erupted as pyroclastic material

     Volcanic bomb: partially molten blob of magma erupted


    into air (>2.5 in, >6.4 cm)

     Reticulite: frothy, tan, >90% vesicles. Lowest density rock.


    Formed during gas-rich lava fountain eruptions
     Pillow basalt (pillow lava): glassy rind, formed by
    subaqueous or subglacial interaction with lava
    Basalt Baby #1 (born May 2007, Hawai’i)

    Basalt Baby #2 (born May 2014, Hawai’i)

    Basalt Baby #3 (born Aug 2022, Iceland)

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